First, I think it's silly to be arguing over who was less of a genocidal than the other genocidal empires.
Second, the US would have had to have won. I think the situation compared to Ireland is a good one, right down to the North and South divide. Even if England had never let go, or retaken it in 1812 - there was still a storm brouring that never really finished until well after the Civil War. The Revolution made things solid for a little while, and Reconstructtion forcably forrced things down - but these two conflicts had to have happened. Had the British held on for longer, we could be looking at a much more brutall revolution as things had become tense. Civil War, 1812, Revolution in the streets. As the American population would be growing, the "valve" that had helped keep things more stable - immigration to the west - would have been blocked by the French.
I think the Revolution, as many things, was going to happen, it was just a matter of to how far either side was willing to go.
Even today, the Yankee psyche bares the scars of the Revolution and the Civil War - try to have the government send a guy to take a way someone's gun. If that distrust is extended to your normal American's native government, I think it's a mistake to think that it would ever be extended to a forign powers. Yankees have many strengths, but xenophbia, religious fervor, and radical individualism are alll unstab
e elements. I don't think the British could have held on.
-TIG
Alis Volat Propriis; Tiocfaidh ár lá; Proletarier Aller Länder, Vereinigt Euch!
- By wat0n
- By litwin